Robbery at the deathbed, only the Name stands
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
धन्या आतां काय करूं । माझें तान्हुलें लेकरूं॥1॥
धन्या अवचित मरण आलें । मज कोणासी निरविलें ॥ध्रु.॥
माझें दारवंड नका पाडूं । त्याचे हात पाय तोडूं ॥2॥
एके हातीं धरली दाढी । घे कुहाडी दुजे हातीं ॥3॥
येरी घाव घालूं पाहे । तंव तो उठोनि उभा राहे ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे अवघीं चोरें । सेकी रामनाम सोइरें ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A woman cries out, 'Husband, what shall I do? My little infant child!' She laments that death has come suddenly and wonders to whom she has been entrusted. She begs the intruders not to break down her door and threatens to break their hands and feet. One holds the old man by his beard while the other raises an axe. Just as the blow is about to fall, the old man rises and stands. Says Tuka, in the end, all these thieves are vanquished; the Name of Rama is the only true friend.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Husband, what shall I do now? My little nursing child! Husband, death has come without warning. To whom have you left me? Do not break down my door, she cries; I will cut off their hands and their feet. One robber grips the old man by the beard. The other lifts the axe in his hand. As the blow is about to fall, the old man rises and stands up. Tuka says: in the end all these are thieves. At the last, only the Name of Rama is your kin.
What it means
Tukaram stages a household robbery as a picture of how death and attachment plunder a person. The wife wails over her infant and her sudden widowhood; the thieves break in, seize the old man, and raise the axe. The frightened defenses and the bonds of family are shown to be helpless at the moment of crisis. He names the lesson at the end: everything we lean on, possessions, kin, even the body, behaves like a thief in the final hour, and the one true relative who stays is the Name of Rama.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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